Day 4 - Decisions, Options & Channelling My "Rocky"

Confessions & Lessons

G'Day Blogosphere! 

Today, before I get into things I have a confession to make. I need to get it off of my chest and share my lesson… 

No matter the duration, No matter the final destination, there's not a single journey, voyage or trip that has been taken that has been all plain sailing on fair winds and following seas… There's always a bump in the road, a freak wave or something that you encounter. Winnie and I learnt this during our travels together, and I've experienced it many times in my life, some of which is talked about over on ETD. Now, what does this have to do with anything? Well it has everything to do with it! As you are "tested" by life, the universe, your own stupidity (whatever the case may be) you can either complain, be sad etc… OR you could move on, move forwards and learn something.

My confession is this, I crashed last night…big time… I ended up breaking my new routine - I ate jelly beans (lots of them), followed by a bag of popcorn, followed by a small chunk of cheese…. WTH! I slipped a long way from my new standards, and I'm not proud of it, but I learnt more than you'd realise.

I went to bed feeling crappy, bloated and unhappy. Unhappy because I knew I'd crashed, unhappy because I knew that in that moment, I wasn't strong enough to say "no", even to myself.

But what did I learn? Well, I learnt its early days and I'm gonna find this hard, but I also realised it 99% in my head! I need to let go of the "old habits" and create some new ones, and stick to them. My biggest lesson was that even if I felt "less ordinary" or "distinctly average", that, I must stick to my new regimen (and I really can do it). 

I also learnt that this was a test, a test I'll pass next time round! Every bump, blip and curve-ball is a test, and I resolve to pass these tests and learn something, every time.

Set a routine, make it "concrete, one piece unbroken" (as my yoga teachers all say) and stick to it. If it feels awkward or challenging, it must be working. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it! 

Decisions & Options

I woke up this morning and I felt even worse, I must've stewed on it in my sleep! I could've just slept on until 0700h, but I got out of my bed at 0500h, and got straight back into my routine (it felt natural to) and was bounding towards the gym with a new, determined purpose. 

On my walk to the gym (in the rain), I flicked through the many inspirational images my amazing wife has sent to me and I found this:

I Chose Progress.

This was what I needed to recover, to push me to undo the damage I did to my routine with last night's blowout. I decided to punish myself a little with a Shoulder workout that meant pushing harder than normal and really cranking it up a notch. Plus, I knew I had PT this morning too. One way or another I was going to pay off the debt of last night!

I pushed hard in the gym, was the first person in there… You know that feeling you get when you dive into a swimming pool that is dead calm, and you're the only thing making waves…that's how I felt. It was glorious! The gym was my oyster for the first 10-15 minutes and I loved it! I had free reign on all of the equipment! I did some really nice shoulder burnouts and really enjoyed a very peaceful hour of training. Glad to have been to the gym, Glad to be back on track.

I spent 20 minutes stretching, for what looked like it was going to be hell. In fact, somehow I started to feel a pinch of the "OMG! This is too much for me today" sensations, and I even commented, off the cuff almost as a 'serious joke', to Ms Becs that it was only PT maybe I'll just put in 10-15% effort and cruise through the session. Ms Becs responded very quickly to this with "thats not possible, you only do 100% or more" (or words to that effect). Stunned to think that other people may perceive me as being the sort of dude who only has one gear, I felt inspired. In the moments that led up to this mornings Crazy Cardio-Abs Circuit, I got to thinking about why I only give 100%. I was analysing my own actions, and it was spiralling my motivation upwards and making me more energised for the session. 

Channelling My Inner...

As I started the circuit, partnered up with Mr Norm (the biggest computer nerd I know), it hit me right in the chops and pushed me into a training Frenzy! I remembered that scene from Balboa (Mr Mouldie, you know the one I'm talking about), the one where Rocky gives his son a serving for being a lame-ass….

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa, 2006

Just to get you in the mood… (Ignore the foreign bits)

Needless to say, thanks to Mr Balboa playing on repeat in my head coupled with the euphoria that I was experiencing (from feeling like I was in the middle of one of those super-cool training montage scenes from the Rocky movies), and a due to a few old memories flooding back into my mind from my Kickboxing days (with Mr Mouldie), that I had an AWESOME workout! I was burning through the cardio sets and abs exercises like a demon! I pushed through spin-bike sprints, track-starts, 'Toyota' jumps, grid sprints, running high knees on a high jump mattress, skipping, hurdle hop/jumping, ladder sprints…rotating with abs sets of PFT sit-ups, leg raises, bicycle crunches, butterfly sit-ups, heel taps, plank/ab raises, high knee crunches, and low knee crunches. The circuit ran like this: 3 Minutes per station, each was 1 cardio and 1 abs work out. You rotated between abs and cardio when the abs partner reached 20 reps (except on plank where it was 50 skipping reps and Mr Norm enjoyed dragging that one out for me!). Good FUN!

Every second was like I was proving to myself that I am better than that. That I am better than what I did yesterday. I can push past it. I did.

Success!

I also reminded myself of one really important lesson. I realised that its ok to make a mistake here or there, AS LONG AS YOU LEARN SOMETHING. I feel so motivated today, which is lucky as I have an exam tomorrow!